The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-10

prominent men VI 5clcuCo LII IhSi"nu
to-day, amongst the names that would
first occur to us would, of course, be
Professor Thomas Huxley, F. r. S.,
and Professor John Tyndall, F. r. S.
What DR.. Tyndall or DR.. Huxley is
to science, John Stuart Mill may be
said to have been to philosophy. All
the world has read his 6 Logic" tens OF
thousands of delighted students and
statesmen have perused his Political
Economy" and his essays in general
literature are as widely known as the
language in which they are written.
Yet, great and eminent as these men
are, and must forever be in the estima-
ton of intellectual men, it is a mere
matter of fact, and not of thoughtless
inference or sectarian prejudice, that
they are not identified with what is
commonly understood by the express
sion, Spiritual Religion. 1 am not pre-
pared to say that they would assume
the hostility of positive belief; they
would rather suggest that nothing can
be known of the invisible, or what is
called the supernatural and divine.
They would not receive any book, say
the Bible, as the revelation OF the SUI
pernatural being. Probably they would
say, in substance, If there is God, we
do not know him. He has not come
within the limits of our apprehension
and experience; and we know nothing
of the value and authority of any reve-
lation of himself which he is supposed
to have made. This they would not
say fippantly, or with any idea of bring
ing the faith of other men into con-
tempt; they would put forth the state
ment as personal decision, and not as
challenge to controversy, or a re-
proach upon the credulity of other peo-
pie. DIR. Tyndall distinctly says that
there is a secret in nature which sci
ence has not explained; and John Stu
art Mill has in his posthumous essays
said some pathetic and morally beau
tiful things of Him who is worshiped
by Christians as the Son of God and
the only Saviour of mankind. Still, it
must be admitted that DR.. Tyndall, DR..
Huxley, and Mr.. Stuart Mill, stand
quite outside the Christian circle, so far
as it includes a supernatural person, a
supernatural revelation, a supernatural
redemption, and supernatural regen-
Grafton of the human heart. They claim
to live within the limits of objective
knowledge, and distinct personal ex-
perience. That may not seem to put
unworthy words into the mouths of il
lustrious men, let me give a quotation
or two from their own writings:-
DIR. Tyndall says: The mind of man
may be compared to musical instru-
ment with certain range of notes, be-
yond which, in both directions, we have
an infnitude of silence. The phenOm-
ena of matter and force lie within our
intellectual range, and as far as they
reach we will, at all hazards, push our
INQUIRIES. But behind and above and
around all, the real mystery of this uni
verse lies unsolved, and. as far as we
are concerned, is incapable of solution"
Professor Huxley says: Why trouble
ourselves about matters of which, how
ever important they may be, we do
know nothing, and can know nothing +?
We live in world that is full of mis-
cry and ignorance, and the plain duty of
each and all of US is to try to make the
little corner he can influence somewhat
less miserable and somewhat less igno-
rant than it was before he entered it.
To do this effectually, it is necessary to
be fully possessed of only two beliefs:
the first, that the order of nature is as
certainable by our faculties to an ex-
tent which is practically unlimited; the
second, that our volition counts for
something as condition of the course
of events"
This is my text. 1 intend to turn
those two beliefs to practical account,
and to test their consolatcry value in
concrete instance. l must ask to be
allowed the privilege of dramatic IL
cense, only giving you the assurance
that in thus using great names nothing
can be further from my intention than
the least degree of personal disrespect.
Professor Huxley says that the world
is full of misery and ignorance" and
that to reduce the amount of ignorance
and misery effectually only two beliefs
are necessary-andt those two beliefs re-
late to the order of nature and our own
volition. Nothing more is required:
natural law and human volition, prop
erly understood and exercised, are all
we need. 1t is my business now to dis
pute this, and 1 win conduct my side of
the disputation in the form of a para
BILE.
There was a man in these latter days
whose name was Job; the same was
follower of Jesus Christ, and his de-
light was in the law of God, from whom
was all his expectation. job went
among men as one who ceased not from